Sun Rays
by CNGB
Summary: The hidden war against You-Know-Who and the Order of the Phoenix trudges on, but even through those dark times love could be discovered.


A/N: Hi guys! It's me, Brandi. The last thing I wrote was _kiiiinda_ gag-worthy, but I hope that this (which is better; not worthy of, you know, the Pulitzer Prize, but definitely better than "In the Garden") can redeem me.

Written for **Aim. Reach. Increase.**'s The Crayola Challenge, using the color _Cotton Candy__._

Disclaimer: I don't own _Harry Potter_. And you know what? I don't even work for the Crayola company.

XXX

Tonks had known, without a doubt in her mind, that she wanted to be an Auror about mid-way through her fourth year at school. She swore she had been sitting down on her bed, looking at a poster of the Weird Sisters (back when no one knew them and they weren't ridiculously famous world-wide), thinking about how lucky she was to have made a decent grade at Potions, when she thought, _Hey, Aurors make potions_.

Okay, so _maybe_ that's not _exactly _how it went. _Maybe_ Tonks had known a few people who were in the upper years at Hogwarts who were planning on taking their required O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, and _maybe_ her best friend had an older brother who had just freed himself from the chains that labeled him as a trainee and was finally, officially, an Auror. Maybe when she was young, even before her first year, she had dreamed of helping and protecting people, and maybe when that awful little Slytherin boy had thrown that awful little (Dark) curse at a first-year Gryffindor she had . . . put an end to it. Perhaps the way Tonks realized—_finally_ realized—she wanted to be an Auror wasn't quite as silly as thinking about the grade Snape had given her for her most recent exam.

Regardless, Tonks never bothered to tell people all of that. She preferred the simple approach, at least on that subject.

"I want something different today, Reneé," said Tonks as she stared at her reflection.

Tonks and Reneé had been good friends since they met each other for the first time when Tonks was still a trainee and Reneé was shadowing some D.M.G.S. bloke whose name the former had never been able to remember. Tonks was looking for a place to live that wasn't her parents' at the time and one day they had sat by each other at an underground pub named the Grumpy Goblin, got a bit _too_ tipsy, and shared some of their more ridiculous stories with each other. By the end Reneé had offered to be Tonks' roommate at her flat in London. It was not a bad deal, either, because they rarely ever got on each others nerves (though that could very well be because there was an increasing number of nights where they would both come home too exhausted to chat, especially Tonks, who had, in the year 1995, learned of the existence of the Order of the Phoenix from fellow Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and accomplished both her duty to it and to the wizards and witches of England).

"And what are you looking for, doll?"

"I don't know, really. I'm happy with my eyes the way they are, but I want something a bit different with the hair."

"But you look lovely in pink. _Really_," she insisted at Tonks' pointed look.

"Well, I don't look _bad_ in pink. But I still want something different. Maybe a bit darker?"

Reneé happened to be very dark. Her real name was Esmerelda Santiago, and she was born and raised in Spain. She changed her name to Reneé when she moved permanently to England at the age of seventeen. Reneé was very pretty, verging on beautiful, and Tonks felt that her downfall was that she _knew_ it and her arrogance made her unattractive.

Then again, though Tonks was not a jealous person, no one ever went throughout life without sinning a bit. Maybe she was just a bit jealous of Reneé.

Just a bit.

Reneé made a lazy movement with her shoulders that may or may not have been a shrug and walked from the room. Tonks could hear her say distantly, "Have you seen my ring lately?"

Tonks willed her hair to turn a deep blue and quickly decided that it didn't look very good on her.

"No! Wait, _what_ ring?"

"Oh, you know, _the _ring." Reneé sounded a bit exasperated, as if Tonks should know what ring was being talked about when Reneé owned about a hundred and sixty.

"_Which_ 'the ring?'"

She could hear a _tisking_ noise. "The one with blue and green gems."

"Oh, that one."

Was that orange right? No. . . .

"No, I haven't seen it since you wrote it last."

"Damn!"

Tonks decided to give up on her hair and reverted back to the bubble-gum pink; she would try to find a new color when she had more time. She straightened her clothes and followed Reneé's voice into the living room.

"Why are you searching for it anyway?" She gave Reneé her best _mum_ look. "Is there a bloke I should know about?"

Reneé, who had been on her hands and knees searching under the couch, did not look at Tonks when she said, "Yes, actually."

"_Really?_ Oh, but I was just joking! Who is he? And why didn't you tell me about him sooner? Are you going on a date today?"

"You wouldn't know him, I don't think. He's—well, do you know that man that works at the Muggle clothes shop?"

Tonks quirked her eyebrow. "He _is _cute, but I wasn't aware that you ever thought of him."

"Oh, well, I don't suppose it's like I stay awake at night thinking about him. He's just a cute guy, that's all."

"No date?"

Reneé stood up from the carpet and ran a hand through her slightly messed-up hair. "Not yet."

"Need help finding that ring, by the way?"

"Oh yes, please."

"_Accio Ring!"_

"Oh. I didn't think about that."

"I could tell."

XXX

It was another busy day at D.M.L.E. Five people had gone missing, each from a different city, and three Muggle boys had been found murdered on the streets. The Muggle autopsies showed "no (obvious) cause of death," but it was plain to every witch and wizard that someone had used an Unforgivable. Still, Cornelius Fudge remained steadfast in his conviction that You-Know-Who was back, and the majority of the Aurors—and citizens—agreed with him. Tonks could only thank God at the end of the day that Scrimgeour had given her a rather large stack of papers, because as soon as she was dismissed Kingsley caught up with her and told her that she was needed at the Headquarters that night at ten. Typically speaking, if a member of the Order was "needed" then they were going to be going out and doing _something_ or another, and Tonks could only imagine how exhausted she would have been if she had had to do field duty for Scrimgeour and then for Dumbledore.

Tonks went back to her flat, briefly wondered how Reneé was doing with that Muggle boy, and re-positioned herself in front of the bathroom mirror. That morning she had attempted a dark blue, and she _still_ wanted something dark, but just our of curiosity she made it an electric blue. It looked alright.

She changed it back.

Reneé was a Muggle-born but, instead of traveling to Hogwarts, her great-uncle on her father's side had told her parents that he would be able to train her just fine. In fact, she had always done very well, but when she was fourteen she had begged to be sent to Hogwarts so that she would have a better shot at one day working for the Ministry of Magic in London. Even though Reneé was very invested in the Wizarding world, she also incorporated many Muggle aspects into her day-to-day life. She preferred Muggle clothes to the traditional witch robes, she loved to watch the telly, she loved Muggle boy-bands, and she always made sure to carry a bit of Muggle money with her wherever she went.

Tonks, who had nothing better to do at the time, turned the telly on. The actors served more as background noise to her own imagination than anything else until finally it was time to go to Grimmauld Place.

She hated Grimmauld Place. It was retched and dirty and—and _awful_. It was from her mother's family, the Blacks, and her favorite maternal cousin's living quarters (she was not terribly close with Sirius, but she knew that he hated Grimmauld Place too much for it to be called his _home_). Even though the place was absolutely terrible, she was grateful that the Order had a Headquarters to begin wth, and the irony of it being in the old Black house did not escape her.

Tonks tried very hard to watch her step so as not to awake Walburga Black's portrait. She tip-toed all the way from the door to the kitchen, and about half-way there she could hear a few voices. She was able to make out Sirius', for one (though that did not surprise her, as he lived there), and Molly Weasley for another . . . oh, and there was Sirius' old friend, Remus. Friendly lot.

"Oh, look!" she said as she practically pounced into the dining room. "I didn't wake up your mum, Sirius."

"For once," he drawled.

"Good evening, dear. I have dinner cooked, if you're hungry."

"I might just have to take you up on that offer, Molly. But Kingsley told me that I was wanted here?"

"Yes. You only just missed McGonagall, too, but that's alright because she told me what we need you to do."

"Alrighty then."

"You've heard about those boys, haven't you? The Muggles up north that were killed?"

"Oh yes, the Auror department's on it."

"Yes, but the Auror department doesn't recognize it as Death Eater activity," said Remus, "where as _we_ do."

"Take it Dumbledore wants me to head up there and check things out, then?"

"You and Remus," agreed Molly. "Preferably tonight, unless for some reason you just absolutely _can't_."

"Well, I can." (Here she tried to ignore how tired she would be the following day.)

"I'm sorry to put you through this, dear. Would you like to eat something before you head out?"

"Well, something very quick, if anything at all. We need to be—well—"

"Quick," Sirius finished.

"Yes, that."

Tonks thought if she was anyone else she would be more jealous of Molly's superb cooking skills. The woman knew how to make even a common _sandwich_ taste like the bread of the gods. Tonks ate it as quickly as she could and smiled at Remus. "Ready then?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," he replied drily.

And they were off. They Flooed to a Wizarding inn four miles from the town that the boys had lived in. The innkeeper asked for a few Sickles for compensation of the Floo powder used and then Tonks tuned to Remus.

"Have any good back-up stories?"

Remus shrugged. "I'm just an old man who is going to . . . look for a house for his nephew?"

"That's bloody awful." Tonks snorted.

Remus just smiled. "And you're my nephew's . . . girlfriend."

"Alright. God, you're surprisingly terrible at cover-up stories. I thought you would have been brilliant, seeing as how your friends with Sirius."

"I wouldn't worry. I know how to lie, _even_ if the story is as 'terrible' as this."

"If you say so."

Tonks closed her eyes and tried to imagine what the imaginary nephew of Remus Lupin would find attractive in a girl. A tickling sensation erupted all over her skin, and she felt her hair grow longer and blacker, her skin become just a bit tanner, and her eyes turn darker. She could feel the few freckles form on her cheeks and the tip of her nose become slightly more rounded. As an accomplished Metamorphmagus, Tonks didn't need to look at a mirror to know that she was successful. She would have liked to, but as they were pressed for time she decided against running to the bathroom.

"Good work, Miss . . ."

"Angelica Witinok."

"Oh, sure, that works just as well. S'pose I'll just call myself Romulus."

"Hey, I _get_ it! I get the reference. Oh, but you're surname?"

"Er, something common. Smith."

"Romulus Smith? That's an awful name."

"It is, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it isn't as though I can talk about anyone having a terrible name."

Remus looked vaguely intrigued. "That's right, your real name is something like Nymphadora, isn't it?"

"Yes! But don't call me that."

"Right, of course. Angelica for now."

"And Romulus."

"And Romulus," Remus agreed.

Vincent Road was a pretty thing, thought Tonks as she and Remus walked among the forest beside it. There was nothing truly _spectacular_ about Vincent Road itself, but she knew that the leaves of the trees would make it shine like nothing else during the sunrise.

"So how about you tell me about these Muggles, Romulus?"

"Well, how much do you know?"

Tonks shrugged. "I know that there were three of them and they were killed by the Killing Curse, and found dead in the streets last night."

"Well, don't forget that we don't know everything yet, but Dumbledore suspects that the deaths weren't entirely random. We can't trace them to any Muggle-borns or half-bloods that attend Hogwarts, and Kingsley was even able to get a glimpse of the records of the witches and wizards who never went to school. It doesn't seem like they were related to anyone from the Wizarding world.

"I'm not really sure what Dumbledore's thinking, but at least one of his theories is that the Death Eaters may have been holding a meeting somewhere in this area and those boys just happened to be around to hear it."

Tonks was quiet for a moment, but then expressed her doubts.

"I agree that it seems unlikely," said Remus. "It's just a theory. We're just to—to investigate, investigate this town, and whatever we find we'll report to Dumbledore, and perhaps he'll fill us in in more detail at a later time."

"What were their names?"

"Gregory Kindle, David Hopskish, and, er . . . Robert Endd. Seventeen, eighteen, and fifteen, in that order."

"And—" here Tonks tried to remember the brief information of the subject that had been on one of the papers Scrimgeour had assigned her to "—they all live side-by-side down on, um . . ."

"Down on McGloflin Lane, right."

"Are we going to investigate their families and friends?"

"No. We've been told that someone else from the Order is going to do that."

"Wait a minute," said Tonks. She stopped walking and Remus did, too. "What are we here for? You said to 'investigate,' but what are we investigating if we aren't looking into the people who knew them? We're looking for this maybe Death Eater hideout, is that it?"

"That's exactly it. Well, that, and to see if we can find any Death Eaters around. We don't know the reason why those kids are dead. It _could_ be because they just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time or it _could_ be because they stumbled into something they shouldn't have. Whatever the real reason, we're to assume that there was a meeting here, official or otherwise, and if we find any evidence to prove this then we bring it into light; if we run across any Death Eaters, then we—"

"Blow them to smithereens?"

"Not quite," he said with that slightly dry tone again. "We capture them and bring them to Order Headquarters, where we summon Dumbledore and Mad-Eye. Those two are wanting to handle any interrogations, as they're the most qualified to do so. We're not to 'blow them into smithereens' unless there is no other choice."

Tonks resisted the urge to stick out her tongue and instead started walking again, and Remus joined her. "I'm still confused about this," she said.

"Honestly, I am too," Remus chuckled, but Tonks thought she could hear a dash of exasperation and perhaps confusion in his voice. "Dumbledore—God, you see, this would have been much easier if you were there to hear him personally . . . but Dumbledore said that he _couldn't_ give us all the information yet, and that we just have to act like there was definitely a Death Eater meeting. We have to try to find Death Eaters, or we have to find the place that they used—and if we can't, if we just really _can't_, then we're to assume that this theory of Dumbledore's is wrong and one of his others is right. And," he added when he seen through the trees a sign that said _Welcome to Rookridge_, "what we're going to do is use that spell McGonagall showed us the other day to see if we can find traces of Dark magic."

XXX

Rookridge was an average Muggle town. It had a church that was probably about a century old at the opposing end of the "welcome" sign that Tonks and Remus had come across, and one cemetery by it and a graveyard off to the side. There was a central market where various stores and restaurants were located, several office buildings, a post office, a school, and then all the residential houses. There was nothing very special about it. Tonks liked it.

Remus didn't.

Apparently Kingsley had informed the Order members that night of the details of the Muggle-murders case, and the only thing that Tonks hadn't known already was that the street the boys had been found was called Cobb Street, down by the church, and that was where the Aurors had been sent to investigate. As they walked, they passed by what Tonks and Remus mused would be a Muggle fair.

"Those things are great," she said.

"That so?" he said lazily.

"Yep. My grandparents took me to a fair once, before I started Hogwarts. I had a lot of fun. I accidentally got scared on one of the rides and _stopped_ the thing, so we were all suspended in mid-air, just sitting there. Oh stop _smirking_, I was _scared_. . . ."

"Well, I've never been, anyway."

"Never?"

"Never."

"Never ever ever?"

"Er . . . never ever ever."

"Well, you should try to go some day. Even if you don't go on the rides it can be fun, though of course that's the primary attraction."

"Of course."

Tonks shrugged, and then spotted the steeple. She smiled and pointed to it. "Look, Romulus! We're almost to our destination."

"Good. I think I'd love to be in bed."

"I think that would be preferable to this, yes. But oh well. If it means stopping Death Eater scum—"

"Then our unfortunate lack of sleep is well worth it, yes. I'm not arguing the point."

"Good."

They continued on in companionable silence, and Tonks decided that Remus wasn't that bad of a bloke.

Before they got much closer to the church, they stepped into an alley and cast Disillusionment Charms on themselves and proceeded cautiously.

There were no Aurors, but after casting the revelation spell that McGonagall had crafted for the Order's use Tonks was able to confirm that they had certainly been there. Tonks and Remus both agreed that it would be best to stick together as opposed to splitting apart and ventured forth.

"Should we check inside the church?" questioned Tonks out loud.

"I suppose we should," said Remus, "though I don't think that's where they would have had a meeting."

"Neither do I," Tonks sighed.

Remus, who seemed to sense her disappointment, said, "But it's best to be thorough."

She smiled. "You're very kind."

"I try."

The inside of the church was—just like the rest of the town—very typical for Muggles. It must have been Catholic, and when she cast the same spell she had outside, she could sense the magical remnants the Aurors had left behind. Still nothing malevolent that would suggest Death Eater activity.

"We should search the cemetery," said Remus as he walked out of the church. Tonks followed him and locked the door behind her.

And so they searched the cemetery, and the graveyard, and as quietly as possible, they searched the residences, and then they did the same for the markets, and when they seen what looked to be an old abandoned house (which, of course, was therefore automatically suspicious because it was old and abandoned), they searched it, too. Nothing was coming up. They were feeling rather discouraged after they had searched nearly the whole town.

"Nothing's come up," moaned Tonks. "I think that Dumbledore might be _wrong_ about this one."

Remus said nothing.

"I wasn't entirely sure that was possible."

"It's definitely possible," Remus said gently. "Besides, we still haven't searched the woods yet."

"Yes, I know we haven't. I didn't really want to bother with it—not that I'm ignoring my job!" she quickly said. "I was just trying to be optimistic and hope that Death Eaters would have a friendly chat at the Muggle café."

For a moment, Remus didn't say anything.

"You alright over there, mate?"

"Yes," he said quickly, and stood up from the bench he had chosen to rest at. "I was just thinking a bit."

"Of?"

"Of when I was an optimist."

Tonks smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Oh, and now I suppose you're a hardened pessimist."

"I'd argue that I'm actually a realist, but that would be a lie. I am rather cynical."

"I really don't understand that viewpoint. I mean, clearly there are happy endings! Just because something bad _can_ happen doesn't mean it _will_!"

"Well, that's true. . . . But you're also being a bit hypocritical."

"How so?"

"Just because something good can happen doesn't mean it will. There are times when there aren't happy endings." Remus grimaced. "Such as these Muggle boys. That's not a happy ending."

Tonks didn't answer for a moment, but when she did she said, "You're right . . . but you sound more like a realist than you do a pessimist, you know."

"No," said Remus, shaking his head slowly. "I'm no realist, though I'd like to be . . . I'm much more prone to thinking that bad things are going to happen than I am even considering the good."

Tonks decided not to tell him how sad she thought that was and instead asked if he was ready to go trekking through the woods. He was.

In her seven years at Hogwarts, Tonks and her friends had never made frequent visits to the Forbidden Forest (although they had gone in once with Hagrid as punishment, and three times on their own because one of her more reckless friends thought the best way for him to pass Herbology that year was to have a bit more "hands-on" practice. As it was, he _had_ passed the exam that year with flying colors and afterwards discovered how much he loved the subject), but when they had the Forest had always been . . . wild. Wild, and dangerous. And thick.

The woods by Rickwood were nothing like the Forbidden Forest, and that was undeniably a good thing. When Tonks mentioned this to Remus, he told her that he and his friends (one of which had been Sirius) had often gone exploring the grounds of the forest.

"Really? How often?"

"About once a month around our fifth year, and before that we had gone in a few times, too. Though never as punishment with Hagrid," he added.

The woods did have one prevalent similarity with the Forest, of course, and that was that there were a lot of trees. So many, in fact, that half the time neither Tonks nor Remus were able to make out the sky from above the canopy of leaves. After what must have been over a solid hour, they came to a mossy clearing. A small break was in the leaves and golden rays shone down on them.

"Good morning!" Tonks chirped happily.

"Er, good morning. Shouldn't we be worried? I mean, you're supposed to be at the Ministry at this time. . . ."

Tonks waved her hand. "Don't worry about that. I'm on Order business, so Kingsley will cover for me. I'll get Emmaline Vance to draft me up a fake note, since she's a Healer. We can just say that I—er—well, that I came down with something and was advised not to go into work today."

"I suppose that will be fine," Remus said.

Tonks had cast McGonagall's spell several times, but nothing had ever come up. By what they were both sure was mid-morning they had even crossed the entire woods, to the towns over, and by eleven they were both convinced that there had been no Death Eater meeting.

"What are we supposed to do?" Tonks asked. "Search the other towns?"

"No."

"But our mission was to see if we could find evidence for a Death Eater meeting—"

"—And we did try, and we've failed. Our order was to search Rickwood, not any of the others, and don't forget that it was just a _theory_. I'm very certain that Dumbledore knows something about this incident that he can't tell us about yet, or at the very least suspects something. We've done our part. We should go back."

Tonks groaned. "God, I've missed work for _this_! We didn't even _find_ anything! And I'm going to have so much work to do when I get back tomorrow, and I bet Scrimgeour is going to yell at me, and I swear I'm going to punch him in his face . . ."

"I thought you said it was fine that you were missing work?"

"Well, I'm not really upset about it. I'm just frustrated that we haven't found anything. I'm sorry."

Remus had already started heading back, and Tonks continued to rant to him the entire trek back to town.

Before they emerged from the trees, Tonks sighed and shook herself. She willed her body to revert back to its old self, where she proudly showed her Tonks and Black genes to the world (except for the hair. She kept her hair pink). When she opened her eyes she seen that Remus was looking at her.

She smirked. "Like what you see, do you?"

He rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Come on, let's get back to London."

Remus was about to Apparate away from her when she heard screaming in the distance.

"Wait!" she cried, and he jerked a bit out of surprise. Tonks held her head in the air to indicate that he needed to be very steal and quiet so that she could listen. After a few moments' pause, she realized that they were _excited_ screams, and she recalled the set-up for the fair.

"Oh," she colored, smacking herself lightly on the forehead. "Right. Of course. False alarm. Sorry about that."

Remus chuckled. "It's fine."

"You know," she said quickly before he had the chance to turn on the spot, "I really would like to eat awful food and get sick from it."

". . . What?"

"Fair food. It's always really awful and unhealthy and I always get sick from it, but that's part of the appeal."

"I'm not very fond of getting sick."

"Don't be daft," she chastised. "C'mon. I need company." He looked as if though he wanted to resist some more, so she smiled and said, "Don't worry. I'm not wanting to go on the rides. I just want to walk around for a few minutes."

"Alright," he sighed.

Tonks had always thought Reneé's habit of carrying around Muggle money was a bit strange, but the girl had always advised Tonks to do the same. "Just in case you ever walk into a shop and you're like, 'Hey, that looks great! I'd wear that!' Even if you're not likely to spend it, since you're not likely to be shopping in Muggle London in the first place—I mean, isn't it better to be safe than sorry, anyway?" And, for the first time ever, Tonks thought that Reneé might be right about that, or at least about carrying around Muggle coins. She wouldn't have been able to get through the fair's gate if she didn't have some with her.

Rickwood, she realized while watching a group of children run pass her, was a very _alive_ town. She hadn't thought about that much when she and Remus were searching for enemy activity, but she thought it to be obvious now.

The fair was a small ordeal, but that didn't surprise Tonks because Rickwood was a small town. There were two rides for the younger children and two rides for the older ones and any adults that happened to want to join, and besides that there were a few games to play and food carts to choose from. Tonks, feeling nostalgic, approached a young woman and asked for some cotton candy. It was, she thought, colored some strange cross between red, orange, and pink.

"Not going to get any?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "No. I don't like to get sick."

"Oh, I was just joking about that. It's not _that_ bad. I mean, if you plan on getting on the rides or just gorging yourself then it _is_ that bad, but otherwise it isn't."

He smiled. "Nice to know."

The two of them walked in a circle around the fair's edge. She was exhausted and so was he, and she suddenly realized that she was a very selfish person.

"I'm sorry for demanding you come out here," she said. "That was wrong of me."

Remus laughed, and she was surprised because she couldn't remember having heard him truly laugh before. It was a nice sound. "Don't worry about it. It's not as though you've made me, I don't know, travel to Iceland with you."

They were both silent for a few minutes more.

"I like this color," she said finally, referencing the cotton candy. "Think it'd look good as a hair color? With this skin complexion and eye color?"

"Er. . . ."

"Oh, don't look all shy about it. Really. I just want to know."

Remus shrugged, and Tonks thought that he looked rather helpless. "I think there's a certain beauty in wearing what you love, and so if you love this color, then—"

"I'd probably look bad in it, then," she laughed. "I only said I _like_ this color . . . and I've noticed a rather disheartening little fact: my hair doesn't look good dark."

"That so?" he drawled. "What's your natural hair color, then?"

"Brown. This really terrible, terrible brown."

Remus cocked his eyebrow. "Like Mr. Tonks'?"

"Exactly."

"That's really not a bad—er—hair color, you know."

"Didn't know you were into blokes, Lupin."

Remus roled his eyes. _"Honestly."_

Tonks finished the cotton candy and sat down at a bench. She closed her eyes and stretched her legs, and when she opened them again she looked at Remus. The sun's lighting was playing tricks on his skin, highlighting his sandy brown hair that was specked with gray, his skin, his clothes—and she _blushed_, to her chagrin.

For months to come, she would swear that she had just been sitting there, idly by, and she had glanced at him, and the Sun just happened to be doing its thing with him, and it was then that she realized she loved him. _Maybe_ it wasn't quite that simple. _Maybe_ her realization had come to her then because she had already gone on three missions prior, and maybe it also had something to do with the stories that she had been told about the infamous Marauders. Maybe it had something to do with how he had always been rather kind to her and everyone else, and maybe it had something to do with how _good_ of a person he was, despite the stigma that came with being infected with lycanthropy. Maybe she had been harboring a crush on him since she first met him and had simply denied it to herself due to the war.

In the end, it didn't matter.

She smiled.

XXX

A/N: Written for my lesbian lover, Elise. XD Looowl. No, we're not actually lesbians. But shh, don't let the homophobes know that!

Reviews are like cotton candy, ya know.

~ Brandi


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